PRESS CONFERENCE BY BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

The Secretary-General’s report on Srebrenica, released unofficially earlier this week, broke new ground and contained many valuable lessons for the future, Muhamed Sacirbey, the Permanent Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina, told correspondents at a Headquarters conference this morning.

“The report helps us move one step nearer closure” of the Srebrenica issue, Mr. Sacirbey said, adding that he and his colleagues had warned the United Nations against the silent policy of moral equivocation which had contributed to the tragedy of Srebrenica as early as June 1992.

When United Nations officials in Bosnia had been discouraged from differentiating between good and evil, Mr. Sacirbey said, it had sent the United Nations down the path which had led to Srebrenica. “Once down that path”, he added, “it would have been difficult to stop a General Mladic bent on ethnic cleansing.”

However, these were not words of anger, he said, but were meant to commend those within the United Nations system who had recognized flaws and created clear moral paths for the future.

Asked whether he was now in a position to ascribe blame as a result of the report, Mr. Sacirbey said that “as a diplomat and a member of this institution [the United Nations] I am gratified that the United Nations has done the right thing; this opens doors and perhaps what happened in Kosovo was a reflection of that”.

“We know who the heroes are”, he said. “We know who the bumbling bureaucrats are, we know who the murderers are -– and there are indictments out for them.”

“My first impression is: thank you Secretary-General, it’s a good report”, he said.

Mr. Sacirbey said the difference between the current Secretary-General and his predecessor was that “this Secretary-General has been willing to make moral calls despite bureaucratic inertia”.

“But to Dr. Boutros-Ghali’s credit”, he added, “the former Secretary-General took me aside recently when I met him and said, ‘sometimes in hindsight one sees things differently.’”

Asked whether there was anything new to him in the report, Mr. Sacirbey said there was, but that did not overwhelm what was "being put to sleep”. He had, for example, always wondered “what happened on the night of the eleventh – why the air strikes didn’t come. Was it bureaucratic bumbling or deliberate obstruction?”

Also at the press conference was Paul Williams, Co-Chairman of the Commission of International Legal Experts established by the Government of Bosnia and

Sacirbey Press Conference - 2 - 18 November 1999

Herzegovina to evaluate the 17 August report in The New York Times on corruption in the country. Mr. Williams presented a summary of that body’s preliminary findings.

He described as “without apparent substantiation” each of the three central allegations of the story: that as much as a billion dollars had disappeared from public funds or been stolen from international aid projects; that a 4,000-page report prepared by an American-led anti-fraud unit set up by the Office of the High Representative had provided evidence for the allegations; and that the allegedly missing funds had been stolen from international aid programmes through fraud by Muslim, Croatian and Serb nationalist leaders.

Mr. Williams said it was time to turn away from the review of such unsubstantiated allegations and focus on the identification and implementation of concrete and effective anti-corruption and transparency measures. He added that much of the legal and institutional foundation for an effective anti-corruption programme had been laid in Bosnia and Herzegovina. But as in many emerging democracies and markets, corruption remained a serious concern and implementation of the anti-corruption programme was difficult and uneven.

The Commission was considering three packages of concrete measures to enhance Bosnia and Herzegovina’s existing anti-corruption programme, he said. Those were an anti-corruption strike force, state-of-the-art investigative techniques and the enhancement of the authority and independence of judges and law enforcement personnel. It was also recommending increased partnership with the international community at various levels.

In response to a question about whether there was a likelihood of The New York Times being sued, Mr. Sacirbey said he had discouraged his Government from taking legal action because it was very expensive. He stated, however, that the article constituted at best reckless reporting and at worst an intentional dependence on lies.

Asked what he thought the level of corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina actually was, Mr. Williams said there was not the level and the type of corruption alleged by The New York Times, but it was similar to other States in transition in Eastern and Central Europe. And such was the level of engagement with the international community by Bosnia and Herzegovina that the Commission was suggesting that it take a more aggressive approach to corruption.

Mr. Sacirbey cited the difficulties of the transition from communism and the legacy of war as some of the obstacles to eradicating corruption. The lack of certain institutions, and the lack of a border service, were particular problems, he added.

* *** *